[RIFT] Patch Notes - Alpha 26-8-A (02/17/2011)

Welcome to Rift!
Please send feedback and bug reports to alpha@riftgame.com or via the in-game feedback interface.
If you experience technical problems with installing or running the game on your computer, please use http://trionworlds.custhelp.com for troubleshooting.

=== KNOWN ISSUES ===
* Endgame Rifts have been temporarily disabled while we do final polish passes on these events.
* Abyssal Precipice: Standard and Expert: This instance is currently blocked via collision and will be fixed soon.

=== FEATURED ===
* Added button to merchant window to sell all grey loot items in your bags at once.
* Added Ancient Wardstones to Scarwood Reach. Activate them all to wake the legendary beast known as Calydon!
* Added new UI section for class-specific mechanics (Pacts, Convictions, etc) on Player and Target portraits.

GENERAL GAMEPLAY
* Removed the +10 Stat racials from all races.
* Falling damage no longer has a chance to dismount you.
* Dead characters see less sparkle - collectibles, harvestables, and sparkly quest starters no longer show sparkle effects while you are dead.
* Level 1-9 Guild Quests, 'The Enemies of Telara', have been changed so you can update them in either Standard or Expert versions of the listed dungeons.
* Groups now switch to Private Groups when entering Master Looter mode. A warning is shown when changing loot to Master Looter while in a public group. Switching back to a public group while Master Looter is on will reset the looting mode to Group Loot.
* If all group members pass on Group Loot, it goes free-for-all.
* Keep killing snakes! Snakes now cry a little more often, but still not TOO often.
* Discoveries and Bind-On-Pickup status now trigger immediately after purchasing an item from a merchant.

ASCENDED POWERS
* The powers for upgrading Wardstones, empowering against Invasions, and summoning allies now have individual 5 minute cooldowns, where previously they shared one.
* The above should also resolve a bug where sometimes the cooldowns would be reset when logging in.
* It's now possible to upgrade Neutral Wardstones.

CULT SAGA
* The Saga of the Aelfwar: Guardian cult quest line is now in and available! Go speak with the Tribunal in Sanctum. Must have completed Vision of Danger.
* The Saga of the Endless: The Plot: Quest has been folded into the quest that precedes it - 'The Peacemaker'. So if you abandoned The Plot, you no longer have to worry about getting the disguise again.
* The Saga of the Endless: A Family Affair: The List of Names will now drop for the entire group from the Perdeen Rift.
* The Saga of the Endless: Darkblade's Terror: Should now update consistently.
* The Saga of the Endless: Now with more voiceover!

GUILD PERKS
* Banners: Fixed a number of tooltip errors for Guild Banners.
* The two Guild Perk panes have been renamed to Active and Passive.
* Total Recall - New Perk: Reduces the cooldown on Soul Recall by 5/10 minutes.
* Killing Spree: Now increases critical hit by 3-9% for 6 seconds after killing an enemy player.
* Planar Protection: Now increases Resistances of everyone in the raid by 10-30 and costs 1 Planar Charge.
* Call of the Ascended - New Perk: Currently disabled on Alpha pending further tweaks.
* Blood Thirsty: Now heals 10-30% over 6 seconds after killing another player.
* Cache Finder - New Perk: Increases the gain of expert plaque rewards.
* Foe Hunter: Now increases Favor rewards by 3-9%, passive.
* Rift Extraction: Increases the gain from closing Rifts by 3-9%.
* Boundless Power: Increases the chance of gaining Planar Charges by 10-30%.
* Journeyman: Now gives a 5-15% chance of gaining a second skill point. Passive.
* Lucky Penny: Fixed guild panel text for this perk.
* Removed: Shrewd Negotiator, Favored Student, Faking It, Know Your Enemy, Awakened Power, Camp Banner, Able Bodied, and Gift of the Rifts.
* Due to the above changes, guild perk points have been refunded.

COMBAT
* Over-time effects (HoTs, DoTs) will recalculate their outcome for each tick (hit, crit, block, etc).
* Buffing and Cleansing allies who are in combat will now put you into combat.

SOULS
* Warriors: All aura-type abilities stay on your character through relog.
* Warriors: Fixed a bug that caused damage of Airburst, Concussion, and Judgment to be off.
* Buffs with lower values should no longer overwrite buffs with higher values.

ARCHMAGE [PvP]
* Phase Shift: Now only removes curable debuffs instead of all debuffs, and the caster is now immune to damage and curable debuff effects while Phase Shift is active.

ARCHON
* Flaring Power: Now obtained at 32 points.
* Burning Purpose: Now obtained at 51 points. Causes your debuffs to deal Fire damage when applied to an enemy, in addition to its current effects.
* Ashen Defense: The debuff portion now increases Physical damage received by 5%.
* Lingering Dust: Now obtained at 44 points.
* Volcanic Bomb: Now obtained at 16 points.
* Flaring Power and Assault Command [Warlord]: Now share stacking - they will overwrite one another but not other buffs, nor be overwritten by other buffs.

ASSASSIN
* Fixed a tooltip bug with Poison Potency's interaction with Saboteur Charges. It now reflects on the Charges' tooltips for their increased damage.
* Impale: Damage slightly reduced.
* Slip Away: Removed requirement to be out of stealth to use this ability.
* Lethal Poison: Debuff now also increases the critical hit chance of spells against the target.

BARD
* Resonance: Now increases all party/raid member stats by 1-5%, down from 2-10%.
* Fixed a number of abilities with annoyingly loud sounds.

BEASTMASTER
* Protective Companion: Now has 5 ranks and provides a flat armor amount per rank to surrounding party/raid members, instead of a percentage increase.
* Backhanded Blow: Now a big hit attack that deals extra damage for each Bleed effect on the target.

BLADEDANCER
* Combat Preparation: No longer requires a spell reagent.
* Double Coup: Fixed a tooltip error. It should indicate that both damage and critical hit chance of Keen Strike is increased by 100%.

CABALIST
* Symbol of the Ancient: Now increases Death damage by 4%, plus an additional 2.4% per point spent in Cabalist above 36.

CHAMPION
* Frenzied Strike, Inescapable Fury: Damage readjusted.
* Titan's Strike: Fixed a bug where the AOE from this ability was not doing proper damage.
* Intense Training: Now increases Soldier's Bearing to 6-8% instead of 8-14%, and Slayer's Bearing to 18-25% instead of 20-30%.
* Titan's Strength: Now increases Strength by 2-10% instead of 3-15%.
* Grim Satisfaction: Now regains 2 power per second for 1-5 seconds.
* Proper Timing: Now only affects Physical attacks.

CHLOROMANCER
* Seed of Life: Now returns 30% health and mana to the target.
* Essence Surge: Updated the ability description to indicate that the healing done is based off of the caster's health and not the target's.

DRUID
* Satyr: Increased amount of attack power received by the owner's spell power. Increased the amount of melee crit received from the owner's spell crit.
* Combined Effort: Increased buff duration to 15 seconds.
* Friend of the Weald: Now increases the attack/spell power contribution to pets' abilities by 10%, plus an additional 10% per point spent in Druid above 36.
* Savage Force: Now increases the damage of Bombard and Eruption of Life by 5-25%.
* Faith in Action: No longer removed when you remove one of the souls that provides it, but still have another equipped.
* Trickster Spirit: Fixed the jumbled tooltip.

ELEMENTALIST
* Tempest: Moved to a tier 6 branch ability and reduced to take up to 3 soul points.
* Improved Exposure: Removed.
* Exposure: Now increases all magical damage done to the enemy by 7%.
* Charged: Now has 3 ranks.
* Ashen Armor - New Ability: Your Ignite increases the critical hit chance of your Elemental pets by 10-30%. Tier 3 branch ability.
* Abrasion - New Ability: Your Crystalline Missiles have a 10-20% chance to remove a beneficial effect from the enemy. Tier 3 branch ability.
* Icy Carapace - New Ability: Covers the enemy with ice, dealing Water damage over 10 seconds. If the enemy is dealt earth damage, Icy Carapace explodes for Water damage. Tier 3 branch ability.
* Increased the benefit that Earth Elemental abilities gain from attack power. Damage done by these abilities has been adjusted to reflect the new contribution.
* Velocity: Fixed an issue with the debuff placed on the enemy persisting through death.

INQUISITOR
* Ritual of Judgment: Now increases the spell power bonus on Vex and Sanction Heretic by 5%, plus an additional 4% per point spent in Inquisitor above 36.
* Mental Resilience: Now increases the damage of Vex and Sanction Heretic by 10-50%.
* Life and Death Concord: Cooldown reduced to 6 seconds.
* Spiritual Protection: Now a group/raid aura ability.
* Bolt of Judgment: Reduced the bonus from spell power, increased the base damage on ranks 6-10.
* Symbol of Corruption: Now limited to 1 stack per caster.
* Fanaticism: NO longer consumed by non-damaging spells.
* Purge: Now properly removes associated effects.
* Spiritual Deficiency: Fixed the tooltip on the effect to read 7% instead of just 7.

JUSTICAR
* Even Justice: Now a front-facing wedge. No longer requires a target.
* Vengeful Justice: Works again!
* Just Defense: Now stacks with other absorbs.
* Faith in Action: No longer removed when you remove one of the souls that provides it, but still have another equipped.
* Mien of Leadership: Tooltip on the effect now shows the right percentages.

NECROMANCER
* Feign Death: Updated icon.

NIGHTBLADE
* Twilight Transcendence: Reduced duration from 5 seconds to 3 seconds. Now only removes all existing Curse, Poison, and Diseases, and causes the Nightblade to be immune to damage effects for 3 seconds.

PALADIN
* Retaliation/Reactive abilities no longer list Attack Point gain in their tooltips, to match the change several builds back that removed gain of attack points from these abilities.

PARAGON
* Deadly Grace: Can now only occur once every 3 seconds.
* Double Jeopardy: Can now only occur once every 3 seconds, triggers off of Dual Strike or Path of the Wind, and only increases critical hit chance for follow-up type attacks.
* Serenity: Now regains 5-15 power.

PURIFIER
* Surging Flames: Now has a 15 meter radius.
* Enflamed Rejuvenation: No longer triggered or consumed by the Sentinel's Lasting Invocation.

PYROMANCER
* Fire Storm: No longer gives the full amount of Charge on cast, and generates it over the duration of the ability instead.
* Withering Flames: Increased damage.
* Countdown: Corrected description error that listed the delay on damage as 0 seconds.

REAVER
* Shroud of Entropy - New Ability: Gained at 44 points. Reduces all incoming damage by 35% for 2-10 seconds.
* Power From the Masses: No longer triggers off of AoE buffs and beneficial abilities.

RIFTBLADE
* Flamespear: No longer has a damage over time component and had its damage values updated.
* Frost Strike: Now set up as an Elemental attack so it takes advantage of Riftblade abilities that affect Elemental attacks. Cooldown increased to 6 seconds, debuff that increases damage increased to 25%, but damage increase only triggers for the Riftblade who applied it with Frost Strike.
* Thunderstrike: Now set up as an Elemental attack so it takes advantage of Riftblade abilities that affect Elemental attacks.
* Blade of Elemental Affinity: Fixed a bug causing this to not be affected by Elemental Flux.

RIFTSTALKER
* Planar Switch: Now adds aggro on the target.
* Scatter the Shadows: Now makes the player immune to Poisons, Curses, and Diseases instead of all debuffs.

SABOTEUR
* Embers Charge: Debuff should now increase the damage of non-physical attacks by 1% per charge for ranks 1-4.
* Blast Charge: Ranks 8-10 now correctly add 5 Charges when used with Rapid Setup.

SHAMAN
* Ageless Ice: No longer removes Vengeances.
* Faith in Action: No longer removed when you remove one of the souls that provides it, but still have another equipped.
* Heart of [X]: Updated all tooltips to reflect current functionality.
* Lust for Blood: No longer incorrectly grants the bonus to non-Physical damage.
* Courage of the Eagle: No longer costs crazy amounts of mana.

STORMCALLER
* Lightning Storm: No longer gives the full amount of Charge on cast, and generates it over the duration of the ability instead.
* Storm Guard: Fixed an issue causing this ability to not place stacks of Electrified on enemies.

VINDICATOR [PvP]
* Phalanx: Duration added to tooltip.
* Berserker Defense: The armor gained is now valid against both PvE and PvP targets. Armor bonus should now be visible in tooltips.

WARLOCK
* Devouring Shadows: No longer gives the full amount of Charge on cast, and generates it over the duration of the ability instead.
* Defile: Will no longer continue to drain Charge after the enemy dies.

WARLORD
* Aid Command and Rallying Command: Now stack with other buffs of a similar type, so they should not overwrite other buffs or be overwritten.
* Assault Command and Flaring Power [Archon]: Now only overwrite one another, and stack with other buff types.
* Sergeant's Order: Fixed an issue where this couldn't be used on a target that was immune to Knockback.
* Commander's Order: Removed.
* Intercept - New Ability: Causes the target's threat to be applied to the Warlord.
* Battlefield Awareness - New Ability: Self buff that lasts 1 hour, causing the Warlord to gain 3% Dodge increase each time they use a Call ability.
* Rapid Recovery: Now recovers 3-10 Power when blocking.

SCARLET GORGE
* Completing quests will now spawn guards and merchants at the Ancient Wardstones in several locations.

SCARWOOD REACH
* Added Ancient Wardstones to Scarwood Reach. Activate them all to wake the legendary beast known as Calydon!
* Slave No Longer: Players should no longer be able to get trapped inside the energy barrier with Gnarlbone inside the Blighted Pit.
* Secret Weapon: Quest has been heavily tuned, cleaned up, and polished. It can now be completed for a full party at once.
* Fixed an issue in Kain's Command where Marshal Kain would sometimes become non-interactable.

SHIMMERSAND
* Players should be able to complete the Dunes of Akala rift quest, 'Tendrils Beneath', while ungrouped.
* Khaliti Watcher guards have been added to most Shimmersand quest hubs and will respond to players who engage in PvP nearby.
* If you die in Hazeed's caves in the Flatyard, your corpse is now teleported outside of you choose to respawn.
* Players are now able to cross the Gildstone Sanctum bridge while Soul Walking.

STILLMOOR
* The Noble Lie: Renamed quest rewards.
* Alsbeth is much too busy to hang out at Caer Mathos any longer. She has allowed her good friend Duke Dagomir to take her place.

STONEFIELD
* Fixed insta-respawns in the Harrow.

DUNGEONS AND RAIDS
* Removed test Raid Rift lures.
* Zone loot drops have been added to non-boss mobs in Abyssal Precipice, Charmer's Caldera, Darkening Deeps, Deepstrike Mines, and Runic Descent.
* Base power of all Expert dungeon mobs has been slightly tweaked. Feedback is welcome!
* Ability damage and healing for bosses in Expert dungeons have also been tweaked.

THE FALL OF LANTERN HOOK
* The area quest for this dungeon should now properly give rewards.

GREENSCALE'S BLIGHT [Raid]
* The order of bosses in Greenscale's Blight has changed. Infiltrator Johlen is now second, and Oracle Aleria third.
LETAREUS
* Players should no longer see an occasional discrepancy between the visuals and effect positions of Sticky Slime.
INFILTRATOR JOHLEN
* Blinding Bomb warning visuals are now consistently visible.
* Blinding Bomb warning duration increased to four seconds.
* Swarming Wisp damage increased.
* Damage from Furious Wisps and Swarming Wisps now reports to the combat log properly.
* Devastating Bombs and Concussion Bombs despawn faster when killed.
* Lowered the health of Concussion Bombs.
ORACLE ALERIA
* Nature's Rage now increases physical damage by 12% and spell damage by 6% per stack.
* Necrotic Boon: Now removes existing stacks of Necrotic Curse, as well as preventing new stacks from being gained while active.
* It should no longer be possible to kite the Necrotic Werewolf in the center area of the encounter.
* Primal Werewolf and Necrotic Werewolf can no longer kill Invigorating Wisps with their area effects.
* Cast time of Invigorating Wisp's Nature's Rage increased slightly.
* Aleria's Werewolf form now increases her runspeed.
* Necrotic Eruption can no longer be cast on pets.
* Lowered the health of Invigorating Wisps. They also no longer continue channeling after they are killed.
* Killing one Invigorating Wisp will not disrupt the channel of another wisp.
* Health of Aleria's werewolf minions has been reduced.
* Movement speed of Invigorating Pollen has been slightly reduced.
HYLAS
* Hylas will reset if he runs through the boundary of his encounter space before the 10% phase.
* Contagious Cottontail's AE has a larger radius.
* Invocation of Life breaks on damage once Hylas' shield is down. Interrupts still break the channel as well.
* Soul Fracture is no longer dispellable.
* Hylas now gains new abilities on each minion's spawn, rather than death.
* Decreased time between minion spawns.
* Adjusted ability timing so Contagious Cottontail is less likely to happen right before Prince's Wrath.
* Avenging Wrath now increases Hylas' movement speed.
* Hedge Stalkers now have Feral Blitz. They also no longer have loot.

ITEMS
* Freemarch Warden's Badge: Cleaned up the effect description.
* Energy Potions: Fixed so they work for Rogues and Warriors.
* Amphibious Brew: Updated tooltip. Breath bar should now return to the correct state after this wears off.
* Removed resale value from single-stat Essences purchased from Planar Merchants. Planar Goods are priceless.
* Planarite collected now caps at 30,000. That's a lot.
* Updated Dye Merchant sales lists and prices.
* Dye Remover should no longer be consumed when used on an undyed item.
* Rebalanced Lesser Essences to no longer have Melee Hit or Spell Focus. These Essences now have Melee/Spell Crit or Attack/Spell Power.
* Runes from Iron Claw Quartermaster should no longer require Red Scar notoriety.

CRAFTING
* Crafting recipes can now drop in Expert dungeons. These recipes are tradable.
* Fixed an issue where Explosive Philters and Venom Philters could not be used because of conflicting level requirements.
* Removed the recipes for Quicksilver Handwraps and Warden's Handwraps from Outfitter trainers.
* Outfitter, Weaponsmith, Artificer, and Armorsmith now offer temporary duration 'runes'! These recipes use up material gained from salvaging. You can craft Whetstones to add weapon damage, Riding Chaps to increase mount speed, ammo coating for Bows and Guns, and more. Check out a trainer to see what else you can whip up!
* Added a casting time and cast bar text to applying runes.
* Fixed an issue where Recipe: Shaleweave Handwraps referred to Shaleweave Slippers.
* Salvage Accessories should now work on Rings, Necklaces, and Totems.
* Fixed an issue where certain crafted Totems were not displaying when equipped.
* Expert and Master tier crafting quests now correctly award experience.
* Updated tooltip for Bottle of Spellstrikes and Bottle of Critical Strikes potions to include duration.
* Removed the Accuracy and Magical Accuracy Vial recipe scrolls from the Apothecary Artisan Store.
* Apothecary Trainers now teach Cyan, Magenta, Seafoam Green, and Sky Blue Dye recipes.
* The Apothecary Artisan Store now carries Light and Dark variations of the Apothecary-crafted dyes. It also carries Black and White Dye Recipes.
* Cloudborne Ice Necklaces are no longer Runebreakable.
* The following Augment series have been removed: Faerie Wings, Ifrit Essences, Mistwalker Essences, Scorpion Stingers, Gargoyle Wings.
* Deep One Tooth augments will now grant bonuses to Block and Endurance.
* Basilisk Tail augments now grant bonuses to Endurance and Wisdom.
* Augment drops from Rift content have been adjusted.
* Basic stat augments will drop less frequently.
* Specialty stat augments and dual-stat augments per rift type will drop more frequently.
* Dual-stat augments drop more frequently in general.
* Recipes offered from Dragonslayer Covenant, Icewatch, and Order of Mathos Quartermasters now have an updated skill requirement of 300.
* Stillmoor, Shimmersand, and Iron Pine Peaks now have zone-specific crafting item drops that can drop from any mob in the zone. These items are now included in each of these faction recipes.

GRAPHICS AND AUDIO
* Additional hairstyles have been unlocked for various Defiant races/genders. Expanded Guardian options are incoming.
* You can no longer jump out of water and end up running on land at an impossible angle.
* Entering and leaving a Warfront while swimming will no longer leave you swimming at unnatural angles.
* Added a bunch more vignette voiceover.
* Looping sound effects like the Ranger pet summon sound should be fixed.
* Adriana Weaver has a new model!
* Fixed a bug allowing you to see stealthed characters sometimes.
* Stealthier stealth for Elves - no more visible helmets while stealthed.
* Fixed an issue causing framerate drop when mousing over usable objects.
* Yet another fix for floating visual effects left in the world.
* Better lighting for all players in dungeons and interiors like Sanctum and Meridian.

COMMANDS AND MACROS
* Removed /rope now that we have the Support option for I'M STUCK!

UI/SETTINGS
* Added button to merchant window to sell all grey loot items in your bags at once.
* Added new UI section for class-specific mechanics (Pacts, Convictions, etc) on Player and Target portraits.
* If you are playing with a Soul that has a unique class mechanic, you will see a new piece of UI. All of the mechanic abilities should behave the same as before, but are now visually pulled out of the overcrowded Buff Bar.
* Action bar range indicators now function properly if you have autocast-on-self or auto-cast-on-target's-target enabled.
* '/log' will now start recording all of your non-combat text to Log.txt in the same directory as CombatLog.txt.
* Updated weapon type tooltips for Two Handed Swords and Two Handed Axes.
* 'Always show all actionbars' setting should now properly persist.
* An option has been added to automatically tweet Discoveries.
* If two players try to resurrect you at the same time, the Accept option no longer vanishes.
* If you try to use a guild name that is already taken, we now pop a message box and clear out the guild charter's name entry box.
* Quest item use icons from tracked quest stickies can now be dragged from the tracker straight to your action bar.
* New PvP quest icons and cursors for minimaps, quest windows, and quest tracking.

CLIENT/SERVER
* Fixed a crash when alt-tabbing out during initial load.
* The port range for Rift servers has changed to 6520-6540 to address problems with port blocking and throttling. Port 80 is still available for users who cannot connect on the standard port range.

Are they serious?!?! What the hell are they trying to achieve there with those warrior changes? Make warrior souls so fucked up that no1 actually plays one? I am seriously considering to reroll something else now... All I see here is nerfed xx, nerfed xx, nerfed xx...

PS. I knew I should've expected anything like that from mythic developers...

I'd take any changes with a pinch of salt, they have changed quite a few things over the last month that they have then back tracked on. Obviously if this makes it into the live build then you can QQ. Patience!